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 kronk wrote:
12 Angry Men is an excellent movie. But not the gakky re-do with Tony Danza.

Yes, absolutely One of those rare occasions when I watched a supposed "classic" and agreed whole heartedly. Totally absorbing.

I think you've only seen the surface of Michael's character. He was an war hero, and became a mafia Don, but who he was changed not at all. He was always smart, ruthless and utterly loyal to his family. His place in the family changed, but personally he changed very little. The really powerful thing to understand, both through this film and it's sequels, is that his transformation was inevitable, that legitimacy was a dream (either Vito's dream that Michael would move away from the family and become a senator or Michael's dream that he could move the family business in to a legitimate one) - the sins of the father would be passed down, generation to generation.

He changed completely, before he never wanted anything to do with the Mafia, then his dad gets shot because of his involvement in organized crime and suddenly his son decides he wanted to be godfather. Its almost as bad as the character transformation in American History X.

American History X is kind of the reverse of the Godfather. Sure we get a tutorial in how the main character became a neo-Nazi, but the story is really about coming back from that more than it is the descent.

Ironclad Warlord wrote:
He changed completely, before he never wanted anything to do with the Mafia, then his dad gets shot because of his involvement in organized crime and suddenly his son decides he wanted to be godfather. Its almost as bad as the character transformation in American History X.

To repeat myself, being in the mafia or a soldier or whatever else is all surface stuff, what Michael really was as a person, intelligent, calculating and loyal to his family, that all remained the same. It just the circumanstances that dictated he use his talents in a different way.

Nor did Michael 'decide' he wanted to be Godfather after his dad was shot. Sonny assumed control, and Michael remained outside the family business.

Michael then volunteered himself to assassinate the family rival and police chief in the restaurant, not out of any ambition to rise up in the mafia, but simply because the family needed to retaliate after what had been done to them. Michael was in hiding when Sonny was killed, and assumed a place by his father's side on his return.

And that's the actual change. Before the mafia war, Vito's plan had always been for Michael to rise to some kind of legitimate power, but now with Sonny murdered, Fredo useless and the family's enemies actively plotting against them, Vito began grooming his son for the role.